Tag Archives: Laura Ingraham

MSNBC’s Chuck Todd thinks Mitt Romney is to blame for the Akin meltdown. Yes, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and the entire Republican Party is responsible for what Mr. Akin said about ‘legitimate rape.’ It’s definitely not the media’s fault. That’s “a chicken and egg conversation,” which Todd had with Laura Ingraham on her radio show on August 22nd:

Chuck Todd, NBC News: The entire political community should be held accountable for this, including the Romney campaign. They’ve lost some traction on the economy and I don’t know why.

Laura Ingraham: But you don’t think the fact that the most, not all, but most in the media establishment have spent the last 48 plus hours obsessing about the comments of one Republican senatorial candidate trying to tar the pro-life movement, Paul Ryan, all of it, with the comments of one man. You don’t think that gets in the way of Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney speaking about economic renewal?

Todd: Well, this is a chicken and egg conversation. This is a distraction. I don’t think it’s a distraction you can quote, blame on the media on this one. It’s not media bias, it’s media, it’s what they’re covering, and the fact is we are under-covering the economy, we are under-covering — but you cover the campaign that is in front of you

In a recent statement that was both factually inaccurate and horribly offensive, Republican Missouri Senate candidate Rep. Todd Akin said that victims of “legitimate rape” don’t get pregnant because “the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan tried to distance themselves from the remark—but the fact is they’re in lockstep with Akin on the major women’s health issues of our time. Just this morning, the Republican Party voted to include the “Human Life Amendment” in their platform, calling for a constitutional ban on abortions nationwide, even for rape victims. Several Romney supporters and advisers stood silently by while this vote took place, and the Los Angeles Times reports that the platform “was written at the direction of Romney’s campaign.”

President Obama spoke out yesterday in response to Akin’s comments: “What I think these comments do underscore is why we shouldn’t have a bunch of politicians, a majority of whom are men, making health care decisions on behalf of women.”

This controversy is not an accident, or a mistake, or an isolated incident. It’s a reflection of a Republican Party whose policies are dangerous for women.

There is a clear choice for women in this election.

I entered this national debate on women’s rights in February, when, as a Georgetown Law student, I testified before members of Congress on the issue of contraception.

Without knowing me or my story, Rush Limbaugh called me a “slut” and a “prostitute” on his radio show.

Many Americans stepped forward to tell me they agreed with me, and supported my right to speak out without being verbally attacked. President Obama stood with us.

Mitt Romney, on the other hand? He didn’t even condemn the remark, instead saying only: “It’s not the language I would have used.”

Since that moment, I’m even more resolved to continue the fight to make sure every single woman—and every man who cares about the women in his life—knows exactly what’s at stake in this election. The Republicans are frighteningly clear on these issues.

The party platform itself includes a “salute” to states that have pushed “informed consent” laws, such as those that force women seeking an abortion to first undergo an invasive and medically unnecessary ultrasound.

Just last year, Paul Ryan joined Todd Akin and more than 200 other Republicans in co-sponsoring legislation that would have narrowed the definition of rape, limiting which victims of rape were “legitimate” enough to receive financial assistance for access to abortion care.

Mitt Romney famously says he would “get rid of” Planned Parenthood if he had the chance. And both Romney and Ryan pledge to go back to a system where insurance companies can discriminate against women and charge us more than men for the same health insurance.

Akin’s comments shouldn’t be surprising. But this isn’t about him—just like it was never about me.

President Obama has told us what he’s fighting for: “I want women to control their own health choices, just like I want my daughters to have the same opportunities as your sons.”

Republicans, led by Romney and Ryan, have made it clear that they want to make our decisions for us.

President Obama trusts us to make our own.

It’s as simple as that.

The narrative has shifted thanks to Akin. Let’s give him a round of applause for this avoidable distraction that could cost us a Republican congress an much more less that 100 days from Election Day. Drop out!

The media obsession with a gaffe by Congressman Todd Akin continued on Wednesday and Thursday morning. The ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts and morning shows offered five additional segments, bringing the amount of coverage to a massive 96 minutes (and 45 segments) over three and a half days. The disparity between Akin and gaffe-prone Vice President Biden’s “chains” controversy from last week is now five-to-one.

The massive amount of coverage is obviously favorable to the Democrats, a point Good Morning America co-host George Stephanopoulos underlined: “Mitt Romney hoping to shake off those controversial comments from Congressman Todd Akin about abortion and rape. President Obama and his team doing everything they can to make it stick.”

Reporter Jake Tapper helpfully parroted that the Democrats are “trying to turn [Akin] into Mitt Romney’s second running mate.”

He added, “The White House trying to link Paul Ryan to Akin because they both backed a bill that would have narrowed one of the few exceptions for federally funded abortions, from instances of rape to forcible rape.”